The federal budget process

Annual funding areas

Every year, the U.S. Congress begins work on a federal budget for the next fiscal year. The federal government’s fiscal year runs from October 1 of one calendar year through September 30 of the next.

And the annual budget covers three spending areas:

• Mandatory spending - funding for Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, and other spending required by law. This typically uses over half of all funding.
• Discretionary spending - federal agency funding. Congress sets funding levels for these each year. This usually accounts for around a third of all funding.
• Interest on the debt - this usually uses less than 10 percent of all funding.

Creating the U.S. federal budget

The budget planning begins a year before the budget is to go into effect.

Learn more about the federal government budget and spending

• Get a more in-depth look at the federal budget process.
• Visit USAspending.gov to track how government agencies and programs use the budgeted money.